Better Than Broadway

This weekend, my wife and I had the opportunity to attend a production of “The Miracle Worker” at Dallas Children’s Theater’s Rosewood Center for Family Arts. The Rosewood Center is located at 5938 Skillman Drive in Dallas, TX. We had lived near this theater several years ago and never knew it existed. When we arrived we were in for quite a surprise. If we’d known such a wonderful theater was just a short distance from us, we definitely would have come here sooner.

This is why we started Calendee in the first place. The DFW area has an extensive theater and entertainment network that so few people know about. I’m sure there are thousands or hundreds of thousands of DFW residents that are unaware a great theater is just minutes away from them. Calendee can help everyone find something to do near them.

The Center consists of 58,000 square feet of theater and class room space. This venue is very well kept, clean, and welcoming. While in the lobby, we wandered around and read about all the sponsor information, looked at the list of upcoming productions, and just chatted while we waited to take our seats. The entire complex is devoted to childrens theater and artistic education. Rosewood Center hosts theater classes for children of all age groups. Usually, the children participate in a performance at the end of their classes. In addition to educating children, DCT also trains the trainer. They have teacher workshops to help educators expand their knowledge about the performing arts to be used in their own classrooms.

“The Miracle Worker” was put on in the Baker Theater section of the Rosewood Center. This theater seats 400 people in a stadium seating format. The Center also has the Studio Theater which seats 160. Initially, we had really great seats about mid-stage and near the top of the flight of steps. However, we offered our seats to two young girls that wanted to sit next to some friends. When we made this offer, there appeared to be plenty of seats just a little further away. By the time we made it to that area, they were taken. So, we ended up at the far right of the seating near the top. At first I was dismayed that we might not have as good a view of the show. If you attend a show here, please be warned. The theater is very popular and fills up fast. If you want your entire group to sit together, you need to arrive early!

Fortunately, our new seats turned out just fine. The theater is well designed without any obstructions blocking the stage. Despite the fact that the actors did not use any microphones or headsets, we were able to hear them perfectly throughout most of the production. Our only difficulty was when young children were finding the antics of Helen Keller a bit funny. However, this was not unpleasant and was interesting for us to see how younger children interpreted the events on stage differently than the adults did.

“The Miracle Worker” is a play about the early life of Helen Keller. She was born apparently “normal” in the late 1800’s. However, after a bout of illness as an infant, her parents discovered her to be blind, deaf, and virtually mute. For 6 years, they raised her with little discipline and loads of pity. Over the years, her parents tried all kinds of miracle cures and visited countless “quacks” in an effort to make her normal again. Nothing worked and Helen quickly spiraled into a tantrum throwing, spoiled, little girl. In one last desperate attempt to get control of Helen, they sought help from the Perkins Institute for the Blind. This is where the play begins.

The Perkins Institute sent Annie Sullivan to aid the Kellers. Annie (played by Trisha Miller Smith) was a recent graduate of the institute. At the ripe old age of 20, she arrived in Alabama to help with Helen (played by Pam Covington). The Kellers were expecting someone older and more experienced to help with their daughter. Instead, they got a young woman, just graduated, and with some emotional trauma of her own to help “cure” their daughter.

Of course, Ms. Sullivan knew there was no cure for this problem. Her only hope in teaching Helen was in hard work and discipline. She had to first stop the pattern of pity and tantrums that Helen and her family had fallen into. This was no easy task as Helen was prone to burst into berserk fits of kicking, clawing, and screaming at every disciplinary effort of Ms. Sullivan. Eventually, Ms. Sullivan convinced the Kellers that Helen had to be separated from them in order for her to make any headway in educating her.

At this point in the play, it was time for an intermission. We left the theater with the rest of the crowd. Everyone enjoyed drinks and snacks from the concession stand. After just a few minutes, it was announced that there were only 5 minutes left until the second half of the play. We were pleased that the intermission wasn’t a long, dragged out affair as they often are. Considering the young audience members, it was best to keep this as short as possible. Unfortunately, this did not leave much time for those needing the facitilies. With 400 people in attendance, the restrooms did not seem quite big enough to handle the crowds in so short a time.

The second act of the play was about Annie and Helen’s life away from the rest of the Keller family. In reality, they were just a short walk from the family mansion. However, Helen believed herself to be abandoned by her family and completely under the control of Ms. Sullivan. Under this environment, she learned proper table manners, signing of dozens of words, and how to behave and act more “normally”. Unfortunately, the two weeks allowed to Ms. Sullivan to get control of Helen was simply to short. Helen had not yet learned the meaning of all the words she was learning to sign. She could not associate them with any actual objects or concepts.

Back at the Keller mansion, Helen reverted back to her patterns of old. She was testing her parents resolve again. She was quick to discover that they were still willing to pity and spoil her. In the deuzy of a battle with Ms. Sullivan that ensued, Helen had a breakthrough and began to sign frantically. She had finally made the connection between the words she was signing and the meaning behind them. At this point, the play ended. The rest of Helen Keller’s life is literally history. The actors and actresses from the play were welcomed to resounding applause and a standing ovation. The had really put on an excellent show.

After seeing “The Miracle Worker”, it is no surprise that Time magazine voted Dallas Children’s Theater’s one of the “Top Five Theaters in the U.S. for Family Audiences” in 2004. Dallas Children’s Theater’s Rosewood Center for Family Arts is a great theater and “The Miracle Worker” was an excellent production. Trisha Miller Smith and Pam Covington (one of the two young Helen Keller actresses in this production) were excellent. Ms. Smith portrayed the young disciplinarian very well. She was very believable as a stern but compassionate teacher. Ms. Covington did an incredible job of portraying the deaf and bling young Helen Keller. She never made the mistake of appearing sighted and could kick, push, and scream with the best worst of today’s spoiled kids. Bravo!

We really look forward to more performances at Dallas Children’s Theater’s. They will be putting on “The Carnival of Animals” starting in February. We hope to see it with our soon this time.